Altazor


                          (fragments)




Enough, Senora, claw at the beautiful images
Of the furtive ones as illuminated
Another thing another thing we search for
We know how to place a kiss like a glance
To plant glances like trees
To cage in trees like birds
To water birds like helicopters
To play a helicopter like music
To empty music out like a sack
To behead a sack like a penguin
To cultivate penguins like vineyards
To milk a vineyard like a cow
To dismast cows like sailing ships
To comb a sailing ship like a comet
To disembark comets like tourists
To bewitch tourists like snakes
To harvest snakes like almonds
To strip naked an almond like an athlete
To cut down athletes like cypresses
To illuminate cypresses like streetlamps
To nest streetlamps like larks
To exhale larks like breaths
To embroider breaths like silk
To scatter silk like rivers
To hoist a river like a flag
To pluck a flag like a chicken
To extinguish a chicken like a fire
To row in fires like in seas
To reap seas like wheat
To ring wheat like bells
To bleed bells like lambs
To draw lambs like smiles
To bottle smiles like liquor
To mount liquor like gems
To electrify gems like dusk
To man dusk like ships
To strip shoes from ships like a king
To drape kings like auroras
To crucify auroras like prophets
Etc. Etc. Etc.
Enough Senor violin buried in a wave wave
Daily wave of miserable religion
From dream to dream possession of priceless jewels.


                                                              (from Canto III)

Vicente Huidobro